The actor reflects on his mother's suicide attempt and overcoming loss.

The wrestler turned box office king opened up to Express about his struggle with depression before becoming famous.

“Struggle and pain is real,” he said. “I was devastated and depressed.”

Johnson’s journey includes being so badly injured he couldn’t compete in the NFL and then later being cut from the Canadian Football League. Heart pain followed professional pain, with his then girlfriend breaking it off with him.

Despite these lows, Johnson describes his worst moment at just 15 years old, when he had to save his mother from committing suicide.

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“She got out of the car on Interstate 65 in Nashville and walked into oncoming traffic,” Johnson said. “I grabbed her and pulled her back on the gravel shoulder of the road.”

Johnson revealed those dark days are now long behind the mother-son pair.

“What’s crazy about that suicide attempt is that to this day, she has no recollection of it whatsoever,” he said. “Probably best she doesn’t.”

Continuing, “”We both healed but we’ve always got to do our best to pay attention when other people are in pain,” he said. “We have to help them through it and remind them they are not alone.”